In addition to killing dogs and livestock, it has been documented that wolves include whitetail deer and elk in their diet. I personally would like to include whitetail deer in my diet as well, but when predators such as wolves kill deer for their survival it decreases my chance of success while hunting deer. I purchase a deer hunting license and as far I know the wolves do not.

The latest gun-deer season ended with kill numbers being lower than were expected or predicted by the Department of Natural Resources. Personally, I don't see any advantage to having wolves in our ecosystem. If Wisconsin were wolfless there would not be a need to make payments for dead dogs and livestock. This would also increase the state's deer herd by eliminating loss to predation from wolves.

If the general public is interested in viewing wolves, I would suggest it visit a zoo to do so, because wolves are very private and stealthy animals not likely to be seen meandering around in the wild.

The article did not mention the amount of personnel and money allocated by the DNR to monitoring the wolf population. I would guess the amount of money spent for that purpose would be very sizeable, with no real payback for Wisconsin sportsmen and -women.